Mark Dvoretsky's - Endgame Manual: 4th Edition

I just recently purchased this, and I've been told by many people that this is a great book to pick up for endgame study. Has everything there is to offer. However, I've been getting mixed reviews, such as: "It's only for high elo players, you'll get lost if you're not advanced." Or, "It's great for all ratings no matter what level of play you are in, the book is great." etc.

I have a very strong understanding of openings and mid-game play as well as a few common lines in most openings/defenses. After much analysis in my games, I've come to the conclusion that my biggest struggle comes through endgame play. (In bullet) I tend to make very stupid and wasteful moves that throw my lead due to the fact that I just genuinely am not familiar with certain situations I'm put in. I wish to have a stronger understanding of certain positions and theories within the endgame and was wondering if this is the book for me.

Best regards,

Yoshi

All good. Any advice is good advice.

Apart from those books on theoretical endings recommended by IMBacon, you need another one teaching you general endgame principles. '101 Endgame Tips' by Steve Giddins is an excellent book teaching endgame strategy.

IMBacon, you make a highly pertinent observation. We tend overestimate ourselves, and we have gaps in our knowledge which we need to patch up. Jeremy Silman's 'Reassess Your Chess, 4th edition' is excellent for identifying some of those gaps. I'm outside the target audience, but I found it very useful a few years ago.

At your current playing strength, avoid Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual and get Silman's Complete Endgame Course. Anything written by Dvoretsky, though excellent books, are beyond you right now.

I learned the endgame, which is the strongest part of my game, mainly from Reuben Fine's old, 596 page, small, crowded-print Basic Chess Endings and today's books are written in a clearer style. I believe a player of any level can learn from Dvoretsky's book, but to me it's less user friendly than Silman's book. On the other hand, Silman often goes off on a tangent, jokes, tells you there's an argument about whether the endgame position first appeared in a book in 1620 or 1630, and I feel like I'm wading through a swamp trying to learn what to do.

Dvoretsky's book is similar to Reuben Fine's old book but suffers the same drawback in that it tends to demonstrate a series of moves from a position, and then tell you some jargon that isn't very clear. For example, in the Lucena Position or R + P vs R you have to "build a bridge" but you have to guess from the examples given what "build a bridge" means. Still, I'm being picky - you can certainly learn what you need to try to do as the R +P or the R guy.

Personally, after playing or studying a game and wanting to learn more about the proper endgame technique that was/should have been used for that game, I most often refer to Jesus de la Villa's 100 Endgames You Must Know where he tends to deeply cover the aspects of the position before describing the moves required.  It's only 247 larger-print pages compared to Dvoretsky's 399 pages of small print and Silman's larger-print 530 pages, but it goes deep enough for my studies.

Silman's book has the big advantage of presenting endgame positions you'll most often need at various rating levels - so it's clear where to start. de la Villa's book just says "know these 100" but that works, too.

Dvoretsky begins the preface to his book with "All one needs is thorough knowledge of a limited number of "precise" positions (as a rule, elementary ones)..."  But then his book lists a HUGE number of elementary and complicated positions and there's no instruction as to what to learn first. Fine's book (written in 1941) at least takes the most commonly seen endgames and spends great length on them compared to less common endings.  Still, you CAN learn a lot from Dvoretsky at amy level though it may take more work.

"... before discussing the specifics of Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual [henceforth 'DEM'], a word of warning is in order. I must emphasize that this is a terribly advanced work that I don't think is a very good way for the average player to study the endgame. The majority of the examples are complex and position-specific, and neither the average student nor even strong masters will follow or play over most of the hundreds of positions that are given extensive analysis, not to mention the subvariations derived from those positions. Even when introducing 'the basics', Dvoretsky's approach is often more complex than is necessary for an average student, and in any case such a thick book will seldom be used for the sake of elementary instruction. The majority of the other material is frankly very difficult. So take note: I don't want to be blamed, in praising this book, for your purchasing something that you find intimidating, relatively dull, or otherwise unsatisfying. That said, if you are up to a real challenge and have a great deal of time to devote to reading and playing over examples you will inevitably derive great value from this work. ..." - IM John Watson (2005)

http://theweekinchess.com/john-watson-reviews/the-end-game-comes-before-we-know-it

http://www.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/Dvoretskys-Endgame-Manual-3rd-Edition-78p3502.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708233815/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review399.pdf

https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/2703.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708103149/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review594.pdf

http://theweekinchess.com/john-watson-reviews/theres-an-end-to-it-all

https://www.silmanjamespress.com/shop/chess/silmans-complete-endgame-course/

"... the 2000+ player for which 100 Endgames You Must Know is really intended ..."

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708105702/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review645.pdf

"... Players from 2000 up to International Master will find 100 ENDGAMES YOU MUST KNOW quite useful." - IM John Donaldson

http://www.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/100-Endgames-You-Must-Know-78p3863.htm

https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/9026.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708085117/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review574.pdf

http://www.gambitbooks.com/pdfs/101_Chess_Endgame_Tips.pdf

SoupOrVillain: I can only concur with MickinMD. Dvoretsky is well beyond you at this point. Not that you won't learn anything from his book (or any other of his many great books), you would probably learn a lot. However, Dvoretsky's real target audience is highly advanced, highly ambitious player. I greatly enjoy his books, but they're very demanding. For you, a book aimed at your level would teach you much more, because you would be in a place where all of it makes sense to you now. I have the gripe with Silman, great material, but he's far too prone to go off on a tangent. But once you've learned to distinguish between his waffling and his pearls of wisdom, he's great. For your level, he's perfect.

I re-read my chess books regularly, for that very reason (some of it has gone over my head in the past, but now I understand more or most of it perfectly) and I have no hesitation in going over material that is aimed well below my level, because we all have gaps in our knowledge. Patching them up makes us better players. That's why I read Silman (who typically aims at an audience below my level). The first time I read 'The Art of the Middle-Game' by Alexander Kotov and Paul Keres, I absolutely loved it. I loved the writing style, I loved the material they presented, but much of it still flew way over my head (I was E1300 at the time). Next time I re-read it, I was about E1700-E1800 and grasped so much more of what they were saying. Now, I'm re-reading the whole series (five books in total) again (I'm now E2050, having peaked around E2170 a few years ago), and I still find many nuggets to take with me.

Since you have Dvoretsky's book already I would recommend that you start studying what is written in blue then after finishing all read the whole book from the beginning, this is what I'm doing currently and I think it is working well for me. I don't believe in that you won't be able to learn from this book at your level since my own experience tells me that one can understand any chess book if he makes enough effort and spends enough time with it no matter what level he is in.

That's exactly what I'm saying, Mohammad! He will learn from it, just as you do. However, there are other books aimed at his level which will teach much more at this stage.

I just wanted to say, if you are absolutely serious about chess this book is actually a good idea provided you are willing it to follow, study and practice this book for 4-5 years. 

read the book anyway, ye will end up learning something

Is Mark Dvoretsky's endgame manual 4th edition the same as 5th edition?

Here's a review by Han Schut with listed changes.

https://www.chessable.com/dvoretskys-endgame-manual/course/12519/